The $27-million, 52,000-sq-ft expansion of MultiCare Health System's Mary Bridge Children's Hospital and Health Center required crews to work while the adjoining hospital remained in operation.

The team worked closely with the hospital, issuing more than 125 impact statements throughout the project to communicate and coordinate critical shutdowns and other construction procedures that could affect ongoing hospital operations.

Daily infection-control risk assessments and inspections were done to verify that there was no infiltration of containments; that infection-control barriers were functioning properly; and that patient safety was never compromised.

A project-specific safety plan was put in place during preconstruction and initial scheduling sessions. The safety program also included daily meetings between the superintendent and the foremen for each trade to review safety items specific to the activities taking place that day.

Each morning, field teams participated in a stretching program. Focused on creating a program that provided real results, an outside expert analyzed routine activities and common incidents seen in the construction trades to assist in developing an effective ergonomics program.

The two-story project reported no OSHA recordable incidents and no lost-time accidents.

To write a comment about this story, please sign in. If this is your first time commenting on this site, you will be required to fill out a brief registration form. Your public username will be the beginning of the email address that you enter into the form (everything before the @ symbol). Other than that, none of the information that you enter will be publically displayed.

We welcome comments from all points of view. Off-topic or abusive comments, however, will be removed at the editors’ discretion.